Riding Back to School with Diesel Bus Fumes

The big yellow bus that carries your child to school could be introducing some nasty ABCs: asthma, bronchitis and cancer.

If your child is one of the 23 million kids who ride the bus to school, chances are she's breathing in diesel exhaust.  Schools typically use diesel engines since they're durable, heavy-duty haulers.  They're so durable that a third of today's school bus fleet is 18 years or older.  If you see a bus belching black smoke, it's likely to be an older bus with poor maintenance.  These buses spell trouble, but the big health risks to kids are invisible.

The Natural Resources Defense Council tested the air inside school buses with extensive road tests. What they found: diesel exhaust leaks into school buses giving kids elevated cancer risk and respiratory problems. Air quality is 8 times worse inside the bus, than regular outdoor air.

"It's not the black soot you can see. This gunk is so tiny you need a microscope to see it," says Diane Bailey, NRDC scientist in the Health and Environment Program. These tiny bits - called fine particulates - slip by the body's regular filters and travel deep into the lungs.  From there they launch into the blood stream.  "That's where they really wreck havoc," says Bailey.  These tiny particles alone can lead to heart attack, asthma, allergies, and bronchitis.  "Diesel exhaust is toxic soup.  There are hundreds and hundreds of chemicals interacting," says Bailey.

Cancer is another risk.  Mercury, chromium, benzene and other known toxics hitchhike on the tiny particles.  Some cause cancer, especially lung cancer.  The State of California says diesel causes 70 percent of all airborne cancer risk.  Others are neurotoxins which attack the brain, spinal cord and nerves.  Diesel exhaust also creates smog, boosting local ozone levels (bad news for kids with asthma), and adding to acid rain and global warming.

Kids ride the bus an average of 1-2 hours a day for many years. Damage from diesel exhaust can add up.  Toxics accumulate, and kids are especially sensitive to chemicals since their respiratory and immune systems are still developing. They also have higher breathing rates than adults. If your child has a long commute, encourage her to sit in the front, with the windows open.

Should you yank your child off the bus? The healthiest choice is walking or biking with your child to school. Don't be tempted to drive your child to school - another engine just adds to overall pollution. And don't idle your car if you can help it. Idling from non-diesel cars also stirs pollutants into the air, and a long chain of idling vehicles hurts air quality. When driving, don't linger behind diesel trucks or buses.  You can dodge this unnecessary exposure to more diesel exhaust.

Work with your school district on long-term solutions: anti-idling rules, retrofitting old buses with pollution traps and buying new buses that run on cleaner fuels (natural gas and propone).

Help your school set up an anti-idling policy to stop school buses from running their engines in front of school buildings. Several school districts around the country have put in successful anti-idling laws. If cold weather is an issue, ask school officials to designate a waiting area inside the school building for drivers to warm-up.

Take a look at your school's parking lot. Buses should be parked away from air intake vents in the school to prevent exhaust from entering the building. A chain of bumper to bumper buses builds up exhaust and contaminates each bus in line, so buses should park diagonally, if possible.

Make sure your school district has a quality maintenance program for its bus fleet. Exhaust problems are worse in buses with poor maintenance. Retrofit older buses with pollution control traps on the tailpipe. These controls come automatically now with newer buses. Talk to school and bus company officials about rearranging routes for the bus fleet. Move the cleanest, newest buses to the longest routes and save the oldest buses for the shortest routes. Since impacts from diesel exhaust are cumulative, this interim step minimizes exposure to all kids.

Encourage your school district to replace older buses with buses that run on alternative fuels.  Propane, natural gas and hybrid electric buses are the best long-term solution. Target pre-1990 buses, since emissions standards tightened up in 1991.  Older buses also lack basic safety standards. New buses are expensive, often $250,000 each. Write grants to help your local school district find money to retrofit and replace buses. Best place to start: Clean School Bus USA, a federal program run by the EPA. Contact them to learn about new federal funding sources and link up with local and state funding in your area.

With some short-term and long-term change, your child can focus on the real ABCs. 

Keep bus windows open whenever possible and ask your child to sit towards the front of the bus. Don't drive your child to school -- more cars on the road bring more pollutants. Bike or walk your child to school whenever possible.	Help your school set up an anti-idling policy to stop school buses from running their engines in front of school buildings. Several school districts around the country have put in successful anti-idling laws. Talk to school and bus company officials about rearranging routes for the bus fleet.  Move the cleanest, newest buses to the longest routes and save the oldest buses for the shortest routes.  Since impacts from diesel exhaust are cumulative, this interim step minimizes exposure to all kids.	Make sure your school district has a quality maintenance program for its bus fleet.  Exhaust problems are worse in buses with poor maintenance. Work with your school to redesign the bus parking area.  Move buses away from air intake vents in the school, and design the new parking system so buses park diagonally.  A chain of bumper to bumper buses builds up exhaust and contaminates each bus in line. Encourage your school district to replace older buses with buses that run on alternative fuels.  Propane, natural gas and hybrid electric buses are the best long-term solution.

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